Both terms are kind of a joke although "legal tampering" has to be one of the biggest oxymorons of all time.
 }})
The 2026 Free Agency Thread
- Thread starter RedWolf
- Start date
Been reading and watching videos about Flores' defense and think am finally getting a strong handle on it. Some thoughts.
A. Daronte Jones was a bigger part of that defense than I imagined. He was referenced in a bunch of the articles I read
B. I think there is a good shot they chase Eric Wilson in FA. The onus put on LBs is big. And you can see why for example Ivan Pace was benched, you can't be atrocious in coverage in that scheme. Having a LB who understands the scheme would be helpful.
C. To point B, I think bye bye Wagner. In some ways, he's perfect because he's smart as hell and can blitz but you need to go sideline to sideline and cover in that scheme.
D. Why are the LBs and safeties so central? They often play quarters with just two underneath versus the typical 3. So those 2 will include at least one LB, often two, an extra safety.
E. Even though they play 5 man fronts often the nose isn't as important as I thought because blitzing players crash into the gaps and stop the run
F. Versatile players are a premium in this defense. they don't have to be masters of one thing, but if they are good at blitzing and disguising their intentions its very helpful
G. A lot of cover 4-triangle. 3 defenders on each side versus in theory 2 WRs. A lot of match coverage off of that, where the route the WRs takes dictates where the defender goes so communication has to be key with these three players working with each other on each side.
H. The idea behind the defense from how I took it is, you sort of have your cake and eat it too. The extra guys on the line of scrimmage can help stop the run. The cover 4 allows you to help avoid getting beat big on blitzes. For the opposing O line your formations are so wild and chaotic that they are under duress trying to figure out protections.
F. Your edge rushers need to be able to drop into coverage. Part of how they create chaos even rushing 4, is you don't know who is rushing, your edge can drop into coverage to guard against the flat and the safety or LB or CB instead rushes the QB.
G. Your nickle player whether its the CB or S needs to be a good blitzer. They are already close to the action, Flores uses them as blitzers more than the typical team.
Some of my takeaways on personnel based on that.
1. You would think a veteran LB would help more so than a rookie. The LBs have so much on their plate that it might be overwhelming for a rookie.
2. Considering sometimes they play just two players underneath in zone, those two players need to have good sideline to sideline range
3. I think this should suit Sainristil, eyes on the QB playing zone, leaves opportunities for picks
4. The corners might not have to be elite level studs. Just smart players with good ball skills.
5. Edge-LBs also need to be smart, can disguise their intentions.
All of this makes me think Caleb Downs is perfect if he's there at 7. Harrison Smith was the QB on the field for the defense and directing things at times. Caleb is a football nerd who can do the same. Plus his read and reaction skills are perfect for this scheme, he's a beast sideline to sideline. That's sort of how you beat this defense by using schemes to hit underneath and getting your RBs in space and YACing the opponent to death. Caleb's wheel house is stopping this. As for the rest of FA and the draft, lol, I got to think about it. I wanted to understand the scheme before diving into personnel in a big way,
A. Daronte Jones was a bigger part of that defense than I imagined. He was referenced in a bunch of the articles I read
B. I think there is a good shot they chase Eric Wilson in FA. The onus put on LBs is big. And you can see why for example Ivan Pace was benched, you can't be atrocious in coverage in that scheme. Having a LB who understands the scheme would be helpful.
C. To point B, I think bye bye Wagner. In some ways, he's perfect because he's smart as hell and can blitz but you need to go sideline to sideline and cover in that scheme.
D. Why are the LBs and safeties so central? They often play quarters with just two underneath versus the typical 3. So those 2 will include at least one LB, often two, an extra safety.
E. Even though they play 5 man fronts often the nose isn't as important as I thought because blitzing players crash into the gaps and stop the run
F. Versatile players are a premium in this defense. they don't have to be masters of one thing, but if they are good at blitzing and disguising their intentions its very helpful
G. A lot of cover 4-triangle. 3 defenders on each side versus in theory 2 WRs. A lot of match coverage off of that, where the route the WRs takes dictates where the defender goes so communication has to be key with these three players working with each other on each side.
H. The idea behind the defense from how I took it is, you sort of have your cake and eat it too. The extra guys on the line of scrimmage can help stop the run. The cover 4 allows you to help avoid getting beat big on blitzes. For the opposing O line your formations are so wild and chaotic that they are under duress trying to figure out protections.
F. Your edge rushers need to be able to drop into coverage. Part of how they create chaos even rushing 4, is you don't know who is rushing, your edge can drop into coverage to guard against the flat and the safety or LB or CB instead rushes the QB.
G. Your nickle player whether its the CB or S needs to be a good blitzer. They are already close to the action, Flores uses them as blitzers more than the typical team.
Some of my takeaways on personnel based on that.
1. You would think a veteran LB would help more so than a rookie. The LBs have so much on their plate that it might be overwhelming for a rookie.
2. Considering sometimes they play just two players underneath in zone, those two players need to have good sideline to sideline range
3. I think this should suit Sainristil, eyes on the QB playing zone, leaves opportunities for picks
4. The corners might not have to be elite level studs. Just smart players with good ball skills.
5. Edge-LBs also need to be smart, can disguise their intentions.
All of this makes me think Caleb Downs is perfect if he's there at 7. Harrison Smith was the QB on the field for the defense and directing things at times. Caleb is a football nerd who can do the same. Plus his read and reaction skills are perfect for this scheme, he's a beast sideline to sideline. That's sort of how you beat this defense by using schemes to hit underneath and getting your RBs in space and YACing the opponent to death. Caleb's wheel house is stopping this. As for the rest of FA and the draft, lol, I got to think about it. I wanted to understand the scheme before diving into personnel in a big way,
What's even funnier is that free agency used to start and seconds into it the deals would be happening faster than they could announce them.
It was painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain that there was tampering going on because there's no way they could discuss and negotiate deals in seconds but nobody really seemed to care too much.
They decided to put in this legal tampering period to mask what everybody knew was happening anyway and now the deals are announced almost immediately after the legal tampering period begins.
What's next, the legal tampering of the legal tampering period?
Last edited:
These deals happen in the combine. That's why for me the next two weeks are the worst of the NFL calender, things are so quiet. Combine you got both draft talk and the FA rumors start leaking.
Commander Wraith
The 1st Round Pick
Feels like Peters is up against it this offseason. For one, he almost has to re-sign Tunsil, but that eats up a large portion of our cap space and doing so doesn’t actually improve our team. There are holes all over the place - suggesting he’ll need to lean into his bandaid approach, and that’s further exacerbated by the potential for the staff to be fired next year, so “scheme diverse” becomes a factor when looking at FAs. And yet, this team is also lacking star power. That’s a tough balancing act.
On top of that, we’ve got a group of young guys that haven’t shown enough to trust they can handle the next step - Sinnot, McCaffrey, Lane, Yankoff, Owens, JJB, and arguably Magee and Croskey-Merritt. Heck, even Sainristil and Newton are question marks really.
And that’s not even factoring in scheme fit possibly changing with two new coordinators. The lack of draft picks hurts as well, including making it tougher to maneuver within the draft.
I’ll be curious to see if he takes on some risk (targeting Aiyuk for example), particularly given his comments about injury history, and how he balances the star power vs numerous needs question. It’s also going to be interesting how he balances winning this year vs setting up the future to look attractive to a new HC. Of course, those 2 aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. Does make me think setting Daniels up to succeed becomes priority number one, namely with weapons and solidifying the oline by addressing LG. Though fielding a poor D also puts more pressure on Daniels… again, tough balancing act.
Blah, maybe I’m just feeling down after watching 2 mostly complete teams in the Super Bowl. On the bright side, we have Daniels and it shouldn’t be hard to improve the roster at least to some extent, lol.
On top of that, we’ve got a group of young guys that haven’t shown enough to trust they can handle the next step - Sinnot, McCaffrey, Lane, Yankoff, Owens, JJB, and arguably Magee and Croskey-Merritt. Heck, even Sainristil and Newton are question marks really.
And that’s not even factoring in scheme fit possibly changing with two new coordinators. The lack of draft picks hurts as well, including making it tougher to maneuver within the draft.
I’ll be curious to see if he takes on some risk (targeting Aiyuk for example), particularly given his comments about injury history, and how he balances the star power vs numerous needs question. It’s also going to be interesting how he balances winning this year vs setting up the future to look attractive to a new HC. Of course, those 2 aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. Does make me think setting Daniels up to succeed becomes priority number one, namely with weapons and solidifying the oline by addressing LG. Though fielding a poor D also puts more pressure on Daniels… again, tough balancing act.
Blah, maybe I’m just feeling down after watching 2 mostly complete teams in the Super Bowl. On the bright side, we have Daniels and it shouldn’t be hard to improve the roster at least to some extent, lol.
SkinsNumberOne
The Starter
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2013
- Messages
- 1,834
- Reaction score
- 1,183
- Points
- 263
Yup, as skinsinparadise said, there is a lot of questioning right now if Aiyuk is burning bridges. Kind of comical in a way.
Many are suggesting that with Jayden's close relationship, at a minimum, Aiyuk could be manageable and the reward outweighs the risk IF he clears medical testing. I think I can subscribe to that thought, but... yeah.
SkinsNumberOne
The Starter
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2013
- Messages
- 1,834
- Reaction score
- 1,183
- Points
- 263
I think one thing that I have come around to after years of agonizing over scheme fit and other aspects is, there are talented and smart players out there. Sometimes the inability to achieve "scheme fit" isn't about the player fit, and it's more about the coaching. I think good coaching makes it work with talented players.
I think we haven't had that high level of coaching in a long time. We talk about how Forbes found a fit with the Rams ("Oh because of their pass rush") and how BSJ found a fit with the Chargers ("Well they bring him in situationally") - but that's the point. If you can find fits for players your FO gives you, and you get enough value given what they gave up to get that player... you'll field a team that can win plenty of football games. Then it's up to the FO to keep improving what you have to work with.
I honestly look first at our coaches (right now) more than AP or our players, even though - we absolutely mismanaged FA going into 2025. I just tend to think a big part of that mismanagement likely came from our coaches as well (and actually I blame THAT on AP collaborating too much instead of doing more of his own evals on talent and need, which I think PHI does and it works for them overall; not perfectly, but in general).
The Tunsil contract likely helps the cap this year.
IMO Peters has been shown up by the Pats and Seattle. Both with coaches he didn't pursue hard enough or at all. Both took over bad defenses and turned that around in one season. Peters hired Quinn, who put his pal in charge of the defense and they did a horrendous job IMO both in personnel and coaching with that unit. Both Seattle and the Pats stepped on the gas, Washington did not.
I am actually feeling good about Daronte Jones, my long post this morning explains it, but I do think he will model the Flores scheme which intrigues me the more I digest.
I am banking on Bram's comment which is he's never been around anyone as competitive as Peters. Peters and Quinn IMO were embarassed last year. I do think they will bounce back but will see.
I do think they can fix this somewhat easier than some think.
A. Sign two edges
B. Sign a CB, doesn't have to be a star, competent CB.
C. Draft an impact defender early like Downs.
That alone with better coaching IMO can bring that unit up to average.
I expect them to do more than just this. But IMO this alone would be a big deal.
On offense they need a WR, TE.
Bonus would be a LB and RB.
What works is both the draft and FA is tailor made to fix their weaknesses.
Really good write up SIP!
Immediately following Jones hire I tagged Wilson as a top FA candidate (and yes Pace as a second option although he is a RFA) due to their knowledge of the scheme. Wilson has been Minny's recent green dot helmet leader and Pace has worn it in the past. If we can sign Wilson it would sure make the transition easier for Jones with someone already overly familiar with him and the scheme. It should also alleviate some of the concern of letting Wagner go and not needing to rely on Magee making calls for the first time.
Just by adding Wilson and Downs would be big moves for the new defense. Of course much more would be needed especially with the D front.
I look so forward to this new aggressive scheme
Sometimes where you hire someone from a scheme they don't always adopt it that fully. So that was my pause on D. Jones but he was featured strongly in what I was reading about Flores' scheme. In short they both became disciples of it from learning from a coach from Pitt college.
So this hasn't been Flores drill in previous stints but he learned it while in Pitt and adopted it in Minny and Jones was part of that and Jones used it while in LSU.
I got to now think of FA and the draft through the lense of what I read.
Edges who can drop in coverage. LBs with sideline to sideline range and are well rounded. Safeties, ditto. It doesn't feel like it puts a lot of burden on the CBs coverage wise but does provide opportunities to have picks hence I can see Sainristil thriving.
linebackers and safeties who can cover, stop the run and blitz. lol, that sounds like a lot to ask of them but I don't think they need to be great at everything but good at everything. My key takeaway though is they need at least one safety and one LB who are great sideline to sideline (to cover in zone when they only have 2 playing underneath) and ones that can blitz well.
Wagner as to his smarts and blitzing ability is perfect but alas he's not a sideline to sidleline or coverage guy.
When you got your edges or LBs dropping into coverage they need to be at least competent at it.
My only worry about the scheme is you need smart players. It can't be these knucklehead moves from the secondary last year. They need smart guys. It's part of why I am thinking they might really really really want Caleb Downs. Even though Will Harris is no stud, he's a smart player by reputation. Guys like that I think help this scheme work.
Im kind of hoping we go a little nuts this year in free agency, not Snyder nuts like throwing ridiculous contracts at over the hill players but heavy spending on needs with young players.
Its been so damn long since we actually had a crazy offseason and with plenty of cap space why the hell not, if the cowboys can kick the can down the road a little bit why the hell cant we?
Ever since the early Snyder years of madness in free agency we've been conditioned to believe that large spending in free agency is a death sentence but we've been frugal for two decades and that hasn't produced squat either.
Our roster sucks it has sucked for as long as I can remember so im game for another Crack at heavy spending with the obvious caveat that it at least be done wisely.
Its been so damn long since we actually had a crazy offseason and with plenty of cap space why the hell not, if the cowboys can kick the can down the road a little bit why the hell cant we?
Ever since the early Snyder years of madness in free agency we've been conditioned to believe that large spending in free agency is a death sentence but we've been frugal for two decades and that hasn't produced squat either.
Our roster sucks it has sucked for as long as I can remember so im game for another Crack at heavy spending with the obvious caveat that it at least be done wisely.
Yes I am feeling good about Jones and what he is bringing in...very welcomed changes! We will run into some hiccups since he is up against it with the low end defensive talent on our current roster but some of the existing players will adapt or fit well into what he looks to deliver. I agree that Mikey and Harris are 2 of those players.
I look forward to the FA's they go after early in March. That will then allow easier focus on the draft positions most required.
An interesting part of this scheme is that the edges do not necessarily need to be the usual 12 sack players coveted by all. It's more about their versatility and in game movement skills, the scheme should put them in the position to get 8 or more sacks but as important, lots of pressures.
SkinsNumberOne
The Starter
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2013
- Messages
- 1,834
- Reaction score
- 1,183
- Points
- 263
I don’t think we were frugal for two decades, there were a lot of idiot moves in that period. It is close though… wow.
Is Haynesworth the last crazy spend?
I think the issue we saw here play out many times was this:
1) get player who wanted to win (I believe many start with that)
2) player sees they can’t win here
3) player resigns himself to get $$$
I think that played out with our D Line guys quite a bit with Sweat, Allen, Payne, Young.
So I do think the wrong culture and vibe- and then paying or overpaying, it can create major issues. I think AP has the smarts to balance it. It's like, check out how Tunsil talks here:
I mean, obviously there is more to it than in an article, but it's key where he "works hard in the offseason" and invites Connerly and Coleman along with him. You need your highly paid guys to exude that kind of leadership. That has to be there, the leadership both by example and direct, I feel. It seems to be there with Tunsil based on these words.
^^ All to say, I don't mind them being careful doling out big checks. I really don't. It's not because I am burned by the old regime's stupidity, but rather it is because I think organizational psychology dictates you need to at least be careful. It is hard to undo that damage sometimes.
HTTR
The Starter
Thanks, as always for this great write up! Gives affirmation to what I already thought, which is that Downs is a perfect fit for the scheme. And to take it a step further, if this scheme doesn’t work out in a year or two for whatever reason and we have to change it up, he will likely still be a very valuable player in any scheme.
My question for you is about the edge rushers in the scheme… do you think we can get away with guys who are not great pass rushers per se, but just reliable? I say this because a lot of the pass rush will come from blitzes and also the edge players have a lot of other responsibilities. It would certainly help with filling all of the other holes if we don’t have to break the bank on a Hendrickson type, for example.
I think they can get away with having multiple good players versus one dominant guy. The edge players like I said can ideally drop into coverage and not look hopeless.
Sort of tweener LB-edge hybrids. As to FA someone like Ellis
My biggest takeaway the more I dived in as for things I didn't understand previously.
He plays zone behind the blitz a lot. that's rare because you typically plan man behind the blitz. The disadvantage with zone with the blitz is you got 6 defenders instead of 7 covering turf. And the issues is the flat-underneath. So you need 2 guys basically to cover the range of what three guys typically cover in zone.
So to offset that they play match which turns to man depending on what the offense is running and or they hope their LBs-safeties can cover more range than the typical LB-safety. That's why I land on Downs or maybe to a lesser extent Styles -- and underneath player who can cover a lot of territory.
Also that slot CB and or big nickle needs to be a good blitzer. Also speaks to Downs.
Last edited:
Alontae Taylor, also a good fit, plays slot and outside, interceptions, sacks.
method man
The Starter
I would be shocked if Kaden hits FA. He’s the brains of Ullbrich’s defense. Coverage is also a weakness
With him, he’s very Bobby Wagner like as a player. Obviously not the same guy Bobby was in his prime but similar mold
method man
The Starter
Wilson really scares me. The NFL, like MLB, is full of scrubs that have 1 big year and return to scrub status after.
You could say the same for Lloyd given he was a disappointing player his 1st 3 years before his breakout this year but he at least has the 1st round pedigree and is 26
method man
The Starter
I actually have my eye on a guy local to you on the cheap in Kader Kohou. Another player I want us to sign on the cheap as a primary backup at outside CB is Martin Emerson
Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 31, Members: 0, Guests: 31)
Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 215) Show all
- Coach Janky Spanky
- Phantvm
- csp3000
- method man
- NickyJ
- Anselmheifer
- leonard_washington
- Riggo_44
- AZDave
- Hailer
- Slim5
- SkinsGuy99
- Rakpo98
- HOF44
- RWJ
- FanSince71
- SkinsNumberOne
- danielthesun
- Ben Wyatt
- 0rder 0f 0ut
- anzohay
- Izzy
- aledb11
- bh32
- Conn
- skinsfan4128
- pwyl
- turtle
- AngryChuckT
- Chris
- Riggo’sRangers
- bowhunter
- mmoore679
- Morbo
- Captain James
- BrotherDP
- NoCalSkins
- Lupin IV
- ntotoro
- Simeon
- The Brotherhood
- The Rook
- Tinker0608
- Magua
- KitKat
- 36ST21
- ES1974
- Blaze Thunderball
- Faithful Fan
- gbear2
- burgold
- Hogwallop
- Kalu44
- FUNNGUN
- man910
- Dah-Dee
- LH9060
- peanut0862
- Guernsey Commander
- mackjr1962
You haven't joined any rooms.